Shir Ami Means Song of My People

Shir Ami is the shul I go to

an old converted house

a place of witness

last night

like other nights

a place where our

disparate

desperate

lives

are transformed

into an ark

transported by song

a bottomless

floating boat

across the Reed Sea

to fetch

scriptures

to find freedom

to find the infinite

a land of milk and honey

singing songs of freedom

is what gets us there

the realization that we

were

are

slaves in Egypt

we are the ark

the other side

the other

even the Palestinians

we are freedom

and we don't even

need

a boat

we are already

there

and yet

and then

the weekly struggle

life in samsara

until we recognize

again

samsara

this sea of bitterness

is also

this place of freedom

this little song of freedom

as Bob Marley said

its all I ever had

Shir Ami